12-year-old could face life in prison for slaying

Started by jimmy olsen, August 20, 2009, 10:01:46 AM

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jimmy olsen

August 20, 2009, 10:01:46 AM
I have mixed feelings on such harsh sentences for kids this young. What say you Languish?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32483792/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
Quote12-year-old could face life in prison for slaying
Detroit boy accused of shooting a woman to death during street robbery
   
updated 9:16 p.m. ET, Wed., Aug 19, 2009

DETROIT - A 12-year-old Detroit boy accused of shooting a 24-year-old woman to death during a street robbery could face an adult murder sentence of life in prison without parole if he's convicted, authorities said Wednesday.

Demarco Harris was being held Wednesday at the Wayne County juvenile detention facility. Police said officers contacted the boy's father Friday, and the man brought his son in to be arrested.

According to police, the boy tried to rob Trisha Babcock, 24, of Davison, just after midnight on Aug. 1. She had come to Detroit seeking work as a dancer and was sitting in the driver's seat of a parked car when the boy pointed his gun at her and a struggle ensued, police said. He shot her once in the chest, police said, and she later died at a hospital.

Harris is charged with felony murder, armed robbery, having a firearm during a felony and violating curfew.

He is too young to be charged as an adult under Michigan law, but the prosecutor's office filed the case with an adult designation. That means the judge can choose to impose an adult sentence. For felony murder, that would be mandatory life in prison without possibility of parole.

Chief: 'Things have changed'
"I could not have been out at night when I was 12," police Chief Warren Evans told reporters Wednesday. "Things have changed."

Police have not said how Harris got the gun, which they have not found yet. But Evans expressed frustration at the widespread presence of guns on the city's streets, particularly in the hands of young people.

"There are days when the shootings — everyone (victim and suspect) is a juvenile," he said. "There are too many guns out there."

In Michigan, cases with an adult designation are tried in juvenile court. After a conviction, the judge has a choice to sentence the juvenile as an adult or as a juvenile, or to defer the decision until the child reaches adulthood.

"It's the most responsible way of charging in this case," said Maria Miller, spokeswoman for Prosecutor Kym Worthy.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey G. Schwartz represented Harris during his brief arraignment Saturday but said the family planned to hire a private lawyer. Schwartz said he knows little about the circumstances but said there are many directions such a case could take.

"The bottom line is in an adult designation case, the judge can sentence the defendant as an adult, as a juvenile or (give) a blended sentence," he said. "There could be a plea bargain."

Michigan's law allowing life prison terms for children first drew widespread attention when Nathaniel Abraham, then 11, was charged with murder in the sniper-killing of an 18-year-old Pontiac neighbor in 1997. He was convicted of second-degree murder and released after his 21st birthday.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
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PDH

#1
August 20, 2009, 10:02:58 AM
I say you are a goddamn retarded new-parrot, Tim.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Valmy

#2
August 20, 2009, 10:08:05 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on August 20, 2009, 10:01:46 AM
I have mixed feelings on such harsh sentences for kids this young. What say you Languish?

You got to do something.  Using kids to commit crimes is an old organized crime trick since they get off easier.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

HVC

#3
August 20, 2009, 10:08:36 AM
If at 12 he's shooting someone to death in a robbery he's past the point of no return. Keep him locked up. OR give him the french treatment and cut off his pointer fingers so he can't shoot a gun again.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Savonarola

#4
August 20, 2009, 10:22:31 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on August 20, 2009, 10:01:46 AM
Michigan's law allowing life prison terms for children first drew widespread attention when Nathaniel Abraham, then 11, was charged with murder in the sniper-killing of an 18-year-old Pontiac neighbor in 1997. He was convicted of second-degree murder and released after his 21st birthday.

He's back in jail again for selling ecstacy out of the trunk of his car after being free for all of 2 years. 
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

DisturbedPervert

#5
August 20, 2009, 10:26:33 AM
QuoteNathaniel Abraham, then 11, was charged with murder in the sniper-killing of an 18-year-old Pontiac neighbor in 1997.

What?  An 11 year old sniper?   

DGuller

#6
August 20, 2009, 10:26:43 AM
Quote from: HVC on August 20, 2009, 10:08:36 AM
If at 12 he's shooting someone to death in a robbery he's past the point of no return.
Agreed.

HVC

#7
August 20, 2009, 10:28:03 AM
Quote from: DGuller on August 20, 2009, 10:26:43 AM
Quote from: HVC on August 20, 2009, 10:08:36 AM
If at 12 he's shooting someone to death in a robbery he's past the point of no return.
Agreed.
What about my finger amputation suggestion? :P
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Savonarola

#8
August 20, 2009, 10:29:34 AM
Quote from: DisturbedPervert on August 20, 2009, 10:26:33 AM
QuoteNathaniel Abraham, then 11, was charged with murder in the sniper-killing of an 18-year-old Pontiac neighbor in 1997.

What?  An 11 year old sniper?

Yes, he didn't even know the person he killed.  Abraham told his girlfriend he wanted to kill someone, stole a gun then shot and killed his neighbor.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

jimmy olsen

#9
August 20, 2009, 10:30:08 AM
Quote from: PDH on August 20, 2009, 10:02:58 AM
I say you are a goddamn retarded new-parrot, Tim.
What about this thread prompted that response?  :huh:
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

ulmont

#10
August 20, 2009, 10:31:23 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on August 20, 2009, 10:30:08 AM
Quote from: PDH on August 20, 2009, 10:02:58 AM
I say you are a goddamn retarded new-parrot, Tim.
What about this thread prompted that response?  :huh:

Possibly the goddamn retarded news-parroting.  I'm just guessing here.

DGuller

#11
August 20, 2009, 10:32:11 AM
Quote from: HVC on August 20, 2009, 10:28:03 AM
What about my finger amputation suggestion? :P
Sure, why not?

Malthus

#12
August 20, 2009, 10:58:31 AM
Quote from: Savonarola on August 20, 2009, 10:22:31 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on August 20, 2009, 10:01:46 AM
Michigan's law allowing life prison terms for children first drew widespread attention when Nathaniel Abraham, then 11, was charged with murder in the sniper-killing of an 18-year-old Pontiac neighbor in 1997. He was convicted of second-degree murder and released after his 21st birthday.

He's back in jail again for selling ecstacy out of the trunk of his car after being free for all of 2 years.

I suppose finding legal work might be somewhat difficult for someone who has been in jail since they were 11 for murder.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Darth Wagtaros

#13
August 20, 2009, 11:03:13 AM
Leave Tim alone.  If sociologists hadn't destroyed the fabric of society he woudln't have to report this stuff.
PDH!

Grey Fox

#14
August 20, 2009, 11:07:05 AM
I approve of this news-parroting. PDH's just bitter he can't do it.
Colonel Caliga is Awesome.
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